THE IDEA behind this simple scene was just to get Jonas into Melody's apartment and set the stage for the next scene, in which Melody shares the story behind the mysterious French postcards for the first time. I wrote this "dumb" dialogue to play up the awkwardness between the withdrawn Melody and the nervous Jonas, as she shows her sparsely-decorated apartment to him. Always ingratiating, and always trying to win Melody's favor, Jonas does his best to keep the compliments coming. But it's clear that these two people really have nothing to say to each other.

AS WE began pre-production, easily the most time-consuming task for me was storyboarding. I drew out each and every shot I had in mind. It took weeks. But I cannot over-emphasize the importance of storyboards. As it's said, if you can't direct a pencil, how can you direct a camera? There were just two shots: one as they walk into the apartment, and the other as they wander around.

THE SET was built and we moved in. First, Mel, Wil and I rehearsed the scene on our own until we were all comfortable. Then the crew came in to set up the shot. Mel and Wil rehearsed the scene again so the crew would know what they were going to do. Assistant cameraman Paul Deng begins by measuring the distance from camera lens to actors. NOTE: it's not my voice you hear in this clip, it's the assistant director's. Click here to play Quicktime movie of rehearsal (1.1 MB).

HERE IS the result of our labors - the two shots edited together for the final scene. Keep in mind that this has been digitized only from a rough cut of the the film - before color-correction (to get the yellow out) or additional sound effects and Foley work. Click here to play Quicktime movie of the final scene (671k).

© Mark Tapio Kines 2008 Melanie Lynskey, Wil Wheaton, Corin Nemec, Corky Nemec, Yelena Danova, Steve Valentine, Blaire Baron, Douglas Coler, Lisa Lo Cicero, James Michael Tyler, Richard Moll, Mark Tapio Kines, Mark Kines